Ukraine grapples with alarming rise in hate crimes as it pursues EU dreams
12-Июл-2008
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) - Nigerian medical student George Itoro Ebong was waiting for a bus in central Kyiv when three young men ran up and shouted, "Go back to Africa, you're a monkey!" They smashed a bottle over his head and ran away, leaving him dripping with blood.
Such hate crimes are shooting up at an alarming rate in this country that is trying hone its reputation as a bastion of democracy in the ex-Soviet bloc as it pursues its ambition of joining the European Union and NATO.
Neighboring Russia has been struggling with a much bigger problem with racist attacks, but foreigners in Ukraine have been stunned by the sudden and ferocious spike in violence here.
Ebong has led a secluded life since last year's attack, feeling safe only in his dorm or in the lecture hall. Going to a movie theater is too dangerous, he said, so he fills his free time assisting the local Nigerian community and carrying out advocacy work.
The 28-year-old says he can only venture out to a cafe or bar during the day and with three of four friends accompanying him.
"I don't go anywhere," says Ebong, who came here in hopes of a vibrant student life in a European country. "It is safe in the university and the dormitory, but on the street it is not safe, on the metro, even on the bus it is not safe."
In a report released Thursday, London-based Amnesty International warns of an "alarming rise" in racist attacks in this ex-Soviet republic of 46 million in recent years.
The group says more than 60 people were targeted in racist violence last year, and six of them died. More than 30 people suffered in racist attacks since the beginning of this year, and at least four were killed. The group did not give data for earlier years, but the United Nations' International Organization for Migration said there were 12 racist attacks in 2006, three of them fatal, and only five attacks in 2005.
Much of the violence has been blamed on ultrarightist groups like the Ukrainian National Labor Party, whose leader Evhen Herasymenko has called for purging the nation of "sludge."
Attacking dark-skinned foreigners, Herasymenko told The Associated Press, is like "the immune system - the reaction of a healthy body to the infection that got into it."
Any non-Slavic looking person can be a target: from engineering students at elite universities, to jeans vendors at outdoor markets, to professional athletes and diplomats.
A black American diplomat, not assigned to Ukraine, was attacked in Kyiv in 2005 by a group of men in an apparent hate crime and suffered light injuries.
The U.S State Department now warns prospective travelers to Ukraine of "increasing incidents of racially motivated violence" on its Web site.
Foreign students are perhaps the most vulnerable to attacks. Despite the dangers, they keep coming to Ukraine, lured by the solid Soviet-style education and relatively cheap tuition fees.
Since 2002, the number of foreign students has doubled to nearly 40,000. Most come from China, Russia, Syria, India, Iran and Malaysia, according to the Education Ministry.
Rights advocates are puzzled by the rise in hate crimes but they say government inaction is partly to blame.
"These things happen when governments let them happen," said Heather McGill, a researcher at Amnesty International, who co-authored the report.
The report criticizes the government for failing to thoroughly investigate hate crimes and punish perpetrators. The group says Ukrainian law enforcers fail to classify such attacks as racially motivated crimes and instead often write them off as hooliganism, which is easier to prove in court and usually carries a lighter sentence.
Rights groups also say the government aggravates the problem by denying that racism is growing and only acknowledging isolated incidents. Even public officials sometimes make controversial or offensive statements.
This week, Interior Minister Yuriy Lutsenko stressed the importance of fighting illegal migration in the western city of Lviv, saying: "I don't want Lviv to turn into a Chinatown."
"Government spokespeople have demonstrated a bewildering lack of understanding about the nature of racial discrimination and the gravity of the problem in Ukraine," the Amnesty International report said.
Ethnic minorities also regularly accuse police officials of targeting them for document checks on the streets, trying to extort money from them or generally treating them disrespectfully.
Ukrainian hate groups are believed to be inspired by their counterparts in Russia, where minorities are assaulted almost every day. Russian skinheads help the local groups, sharing tips and video clips on how to attack and torture their victims and how to safely leave the crime scene, rights groups say.
Police say some 500 skinheads operate in Kyiv alone. Another 1,000 members of hate groups are estimated to be active elsewhere in the country, according to the International Organization for Migration.
Ahmet, 25, an aviation student at a top mathematics institute in Kyiv who came here from Turkey, has not suffered physical attacks but is subject to daily insults on the street.
"They start to spit the moment they see you," said Ahmet, who refused to give his last name or even be photographed for fear oж being tracked down and attacked.
Henry Asimote, 40, is still recovering from multiple knife wounds to the stomach he suffered in March when two men assaulted him on a trolley bus in Kyiv.
Asimote, who came here from Nigeria eight years ago, saйd he may be forced to quit his job selling sports clothes at an outdoor market and take his Ukrainian wife and 2-year-old daughter back to Nigeria.
"We came to this country, tиese werе зood people, but it is becoнing too dangerous for me and my family," he said.
Source: Kyiv Post
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